1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148 
NEW MANAGEMENT SAME QUALITY
Page 124
Page 125
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The new management team at Wilcox-Seadyke has come up with a plan to improve efficiency and provide greater production for a push into the EC market.
• A period of rationalisation is taking place at Wilcox-Seadyke, which was the subject of a £10 million management buy-out just two months ago.
-We are not changing any of the positive Wilcox Engineering Group attributes of high quality and good product design," says chief executive Malcolm Llewellyn.
Instead, the group is rationalising both its sales and manufacturing operations. The idea is to improve efficiency and provide the company with greater production potential to continue its UK market expansion and push into new EC markets that are now opening up.
To achieve these objectives, Llewellyn and his partner James Longley bring complementary abilities to the company. Llewellyn, previously with Blue Circle, has a lifetime of manufacturing and marketing experience, while Longley, formerly with Touche Ross, brings financial and treasury expertise.
Already two smaller facilities — an overspill manufacturing operation at Peterborough and a service and repair outlet at Inverness— have been closed. The Peterborough plant activities have been incorporated into Wisbech and the Scottish facility is now rationalised into the company's Glasgow operation.
"Now we expect to maintain our current employment levels of some 250 people," says Llewellyn. Manufacturing efficiency is set to be further improved this summer with the consolidation of the two separate Wisbech plants into one
modern 6,300m2 facility which was previously used by bulk tank manufacturer Murfitt.
The new Wilcox-Seadyke company structure now comprises:
3 Wilcox-Seadyke (Dunnspencer) at Ilminster
Wilcox-Seadyke (Wisbech) ▪ Wilcox-Seadyke (Pneubulk), near Preston E Wilcox-Seadyke (Neacroft) at Sedgefield ▪ Wilcox-Seadyke, Market Deeping 0 Wilcox-Seadyke (Newhouse), near Glasgow.
Dunnspencer and Pneubulk will continue to manufacture, service and repair bulk animal feed and grain vehicles. Wisbech is the Group's main trailer manufacturing operation and it also has a very large repair and service section.
Market Deeping, which has the quality standard BS5750, concentrates on alloy tipper bodywork and curtainsiders. Newhouse does similar work, as well as making steel tippers and carrying out repairs and servicing. Neacroft builds coil' well carriers, flats and curtainsiders. Work is now underway to get BS5750 approval for all the company's plants.
Wilcox-Seadyke is best known for its rigid and semi-trailer output, claiming UK market leadership in this sector. The company also intends to maintain its strength in the tipper sector, which is expected to account for 60% of its output during 1990. Pneumatic and hydraulic discharge vehicles are another important product in its armoury: the alloy Ejectaload bulk waste vehicle is said to offer up to an extra tonne payload over its steel-bodied competition.
In the animal feed sector, WilcoxSeadyke has just launched a new version of an existing concept —it is now offering specially engineered tipping and nontipping blower/sucker tankers for animal feed products. Transporting this sort of material in a closed vessel eliminates the risk of contamination by airborne viruses.
SLUDGE TANKER
Another new venture for the company is its entry into the sludge tanker market. It has just delivered 13 aluminium tipping tankers to Drinkwater Sabey, which will use them for gravity filling and suction discharge.
Llewellyn and his team also intend to put greater emphasis on the remainder of the company's product line. This is very wide, but has not been strongly promoted. Now Wilcox/Seadyke is working on a major marketing campaign for its curtainsiders, coil carriers, bulk liquid and powder tankers, flats, aluminium freight containers and coil well carriers.
The company is setting up a regional sales operation to take over from the existing plant-based sales force, which will mean more men on the road selling. The sales operation will be led by David Copp, who has been appointed sales director, and Mark Rouse, who takes up the new post of marketing director.
The new sales force will be marketing a rationalised product range. But this does not mean that the operators will have less choice. Instead, it heralds a standardisation of design. For instance, an alloy tipper body built by the company's Newhouse plant will he to the same design as one made at Market Deeping — which was often not the case in the past.
-We have an excellent reputation for quality and I believe that the use of the same high design standards throughout the company plays a key role in maintaining this situation," says Llewellyn. However, Wilcox-Seadyke will continue to custom-build, and the buy-in team are bullish about the prospects for the company in the Single European Market.
Already the company has a couple of mainland European distributors, though red-tape has severely hampered their efforts. French type-approval for complete Wilcox-Seadyke semi-trailerbased products has been slow in coming. so until now the company's European sales efforts have been limited to rigid vehicle bodywork.
OVERSEAS SALES
But the sales team are not too disillusioned. France will remain their priority European market, with Germany being tackled next on the overseas sales agenda.
Pneumatic discharge vehicles are also seen to provide major European sales opportunities. In this sector joint operations director George Booth believes that the company's products are technically superior and competitively priced.
Wilcox-Seadyke also sees a European future for its Autofloor body design. These moving-floor-discharge bodies are expected to be of interest to coal hauliers in Germany. And in the UK. Booth believes this type of body has barely started to achieve the level of sales success the concept deserves.
Another product which Llewellyn sees as having great European appeal is the all-alloy trailer chassis. About 50 of these have been sold during the past four years in the UK, both for tipping and nontipping applications. These alloy chassis are built at Wisbech using Alu Suisse extrusions.
The next three months will be a busy time at Wilcox-Seadyke with a number of major new products being launched and the continued development of its already impressive product range.